Currently, we are the only company in Europe to offer autonomous irrigation and monitoring systems for hop plantations.
The plantation monitoring system was built to monitor the natural conditions in the hop agrocenosis as well as being part of an automatic drip irrigation system on composite hops.
Thanks to wireless communication and data transfer to a server, it is possible to track environmental conditions on plantations in real time using mobile devices such as a smartphone, laptop or notebook.
MONITORING SYSTEM - MEASUREMENTS OF NATURAL CONDITIONS
The measurement system of natural conditions in Lubelski and Magnat hop plantations consists of peripheral stations and central stations, so called smartpoles.
It was created in such a way that in the central part of the plantation there is a central station, and on each of the 6 parts of the hopper there is a peripheral station (Fig. 1). This way of spatial organization of the monitoring system is related to the division of the plantation into experimental fields, which results from the project assumptions. All the smartpoles (both central and peripheral stations) are composite poles (central poles standing vertically), which perform the load-bearing function in the whole hopper structure. What distinguishes them from other poles is that they are additionally equipped with various devices for measuring environmental parameters and for wireless communication.
Both central and peripheral stations are powered by renewable energy sources (RES) in the form of photovoltaic panels (Photo 2, Photo 4). Additionally, the central station at Lubelski hop plantation is powered by a wind turbine operating vertically (Photo 5). All devices are powered and operate in an off grid system, i.e. independently of the power grid.
Measurement data are transmitted wirelessly by radio communication from peripheral stations to the central station. Then supplemented with data from a small meteorological station and sensors located in the central stations are transmitted via an Internet antenna to the database on the server. In this way, data on weather and environmental conditions are collected such as:
- Wilgotność gleby na różnych głębokościach (Fot. 3)
- Precipitation (Photo 7)
- Wind strength and direction (Photo 7)
- Temperature and humidity (Photo 6)
- Photosynthetically active radiation at different heights in a hopper (Fig. 6)
Additionally, wide-angle cameras are installed at central stations for video monitoring of hop plantations and observation of plant health.
Thanks to wireless communication and data transfer to a server, it is possible to track environmental conditions on plantations in real time using mobile devices such as a smartphone, laptop or notebook.
Measurement data available in an application that uses a database. It is possible to track and acquire them both in tabular form and as graphical charts. Both the type of data and the time range can be selected individually according to needs (Fig. 2, 3, 4, 5).
The hop plantation monitoring system was built to monitor the natural conditions in the hop plant agrocenosis, as well as part of an automatic drip irrigation system on composite hops.
